Raiders report: McGloin can prove himself versus Tennessee on Sunday

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Houston Texans are not a very good team they’ve lost eight in a row and they hosted the Oakland Raiders last Sunday. The Texans are going through a lot of problems with injuries and poor performance and a whole lot of other things the fact of the matter you got play whose in front of you. The Raiders are banged up as well their not the picture of perfect health, they put in quarterback Matt McGloin as the starter last Sunday for injured quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

McGloin is a undrafted rookie back there behind center and you know what he looked pretty good and he doesn’t have the arm strength of a lot of quarterbacks but he’s pretty accurate and that makes up for a lot of the problems the arm strength. As long he knows what throws he can and can not make he should be able to at least step in and be a decent back up.

We saw him come into this game last Sunday in Houston and go 18-32 for 197 yards, with three touchdowns passes. That’s as much as you could hope for from a guy like McGloin and he really is a work in progress by all accounts. He’s a guy who came on late in college to even get into the position to join the team and boom he’s in there filling in for Pryor and already your hearing on our talk shows and in the Bay Area “hey maybe McGloin should be the starter instead of Pryor.

Well it’s a little too soon to say that and going forward this year you have to put Pryor back there as long as he’s healthy because that’s the real purpose of the Raiders this season is to figure out whether Pryor is the future quarterback of this football team. You got a guy like McGloin there and he does well it makes you feel a little bit better you have something to build on. If Pryor doesn’t pan out then McGloin can step in and do some business and take care of things for the Raiders for at least a short time.

Now is McGloin a long term solution for the Raiders at a bare minimum they probably have a solid back up behind Pryor whether McGloin is a full time starting option is anybody’s guess. One game against a really bad Texans team doesn’t prove too much in that respect. McGloin has proven for a game or two at least he can step in and be of service to any team in league let alone the Oakland Raiders.

The other big development is the emergence of Rashad Jennings who had just a fantastic game he had 22 rushes for 150 yards 80 of those yards came on one long bruising touchdown run that was just fantastic. Jennings ran through the line and lowered his shoulder and knocked the Texans safety backwards before rumbling the rest of the way it was an eye opening run that kind of served notice to running back Darren McFadden that Jennings is not going to give up that position anytime soon.

McFadden certainly helps by never being on the field but McFadden is a free agent after this season and if Jennings keeps this up it already is a 50-50 proposition whether McFadden returns to the Raiders and the better Jennings. The less likely that McFadden remains a Raider going into 2014. Jennings is proving that he can be a starter in this league, that he should be the Raider guy the rest of the way and he’s the guy to key on.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportrstalk Radio

Raiders don’t have a lot of margin for error

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders have not won in the eastern time zone in something like seven or eight games they’ve had a rough go of it. That cross country trip for the west coast teams is always a difficult one and with the Raiders not being very good that makes it even more difficult. This is a game that the Raiders probably should have won.

They had their chances there certainly was no lack of opportunity in this one they could have won on a lack of occasions but you just can’t turn the ball over in these kinds of games. If your going to win on the road you have to protect the football and the Raiders didn’t. Quarterback Terrelle Pryor fumbled the ball he had an interception and Pryor wasn’t able to make a whole lot of plays in the passing game.

If your going to return an interception for a touchdown and make a couple plays on defense your offense has to support you and Pryor in the last couple of games has not done that. Against the Giants he was 11-26 for only 122 yards with no touchdown passes and really on the ground he wasn’t anymore effective he was only five rushes for 19 yards.

So when Pryor had been effective when he’s been running the ball and that’s opened up things for the pass and that’s made the Raiders successful as a whole. The last two games none of that has happened it might be the team that’s catching up to them. They’ve seen enough tape they know some of their tendencies, they know they’re going to protect against the run.

The Giants forced Pryor to run, they feel like if he’s going to pass the ball he’s not going to win he’s just not accurate anymore. It also didn’t help at the Meadowlands which is a tough place to throw the football because the winds are pretty crazy out there. I don’t think that was any help out there, with the Raiders they have to be successful.

On the ground with Pryor and through the air with Pryor they weren’t either of those and Raiders running back Rashad Jennings had a decent enough game with 20 rushes for 88 yards. That’s not a dynamic offense for the Raiders. They’re looking for playmakers they don’t have a lot of them in fact their biggest playmaker is Pryor if he doesn’t make any plays the offense is really in a tough spot.

The turnovers and the lack of play on offense really hurt them and if the Raiders are going to win these games they don’t have a lot of margin for error and they had a lot of errors so they lost this one to the  Giants.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk Radio

Pryor goes for record run

By Jeremy Kahn

OAKLAND-Terrelle Pryor grew up rooting for the Pittsburgh Steelers as a child growing up in Jeanette,PA and on his first play from scrimmage against his boyhood team, Pryor put himself in the record books.

Pryor went weaving and scampering through the Steelers all the way to the end zone for a 93-yard touchdown run in the first quarter and the Oakland Raiders hung on to defeat the Steelers 21-18 before 52,950 at the Coliseum.

The 93-yard touchdown run by Pryor was not only the longest run play in Raiders’ history, but it was the longest run by a quarterback in NFL history.

Despite a big day on the ground, as he carried the ball nine times for 106 yards, Pryor went just 10-for-19 for 88 yards in the air with two interceptions.

“Like coach said, we started fast, the defense was playing good, It’s a team win. Our defense had a phenomenal second half. At the end of the day it’s a team win, very proud, we got a ‘w’ and that’s really it,” said Pryor.

Darren McFadden carried the ball a whopping 24 for just 73 yards, but scored two touchdowns on the afternoon.

McFadden gave the Raiders a 14-0 lead halfway gone in the first quarter, as he ran through the Steelers defense for a seven-yard touchdown tun.

Shawn Suisham finally got the Steelers on the board with just 46 seconds off the clock in the second quarter, as he nailed a 47-yarder thru the uprights that cut the Raiders lead down to 14-3.

It was McFadden scoring on a four-yard run with 1:55 remaining in the first half, as he scored his second touchdown of the afternoon and gave the Raiders a 21-3 lead.

After the Steelers went three-and-out on the next series, Pryor and the Raiders got the ball back; however Pryor a huge mistake and Cortez Allen picked off the Pryor pass.

Ben Roethlisberger drove the Steelers all the way down to the Raiders 16-yard line, but Suisham missed a 34-yard field goal wide to the right.

The Steelers got the ball to open the second half, and with the help of a 15-yard facemask penalty on Mike Jenkins, the Steelers were in business.

Unfortunately, the 16 play 66 yard drive that took nine minutes and six seconds off the clock was all for naught, as Suisham missed a 32-yard field goal wide to the right.

“Look, it’s no secret, the impact my missed field goals had on the game. We’d have won the game if I made those field goals. It’s a tough one to swallow. No choice but to do it. I should have been better today and we lost because of it,” said Suisham.

Following a Jenkins interception in the beginning in the fourth quarter, Pryor threw a pass that Jacoby Ford caught, but on the play, the wide receiver fumbled the ball and it was recovered by Brett Keisel at the Raiders 11-yard line.

After a Roethlisberger touchdown pass to Heath Miller was overturned, the quarterback regrouped and two plays later, he found Emmanuel Sanders for a nine-yard touchdown pass to get the Steelers within 11 points.

Unfortunately, the Raiders were unable to put the game away, as they went three and out on their next three possessions, giving the Steelers a glitter of hope.

With just under two minutes remaining in the game, rookie Le’Veon Bell scored on a two-yard run and Sanders added the two-point conversion that got the Steelers within three.

Rashad Jennings was able to recover the onside kick, but like all their drives in the fourth quarter, the Raiders went three and out and the Steelers got the ball back with 18 seconds remaining on their own three-yard line and no timeouts.

Roethlisberger found Sanders down the middle for 33 yards, but the clock ran out before the Steelers could get lined up and the Raiders escaped with a three-point victory.

 

Pryor needs to avoid the blitz and a collapsing pocket

by David Zizmor

ALAMEDA–The Raiders have had some problems with the offensive line with injuries and that really came to bear in this game against the Chiefs and let’s not give credit to Kansas City their one of the top defenses in the league this season they’ve done a great job pressuring the quarterback. The Raiders probably should have been a little bit more diligent in their blocking.

For Kansas City to do this and have the game they did against the Raiders is not a big surprise. They’ve been one of the best teams in the league at pressuring the quarterback all season long. So the Raiders knew it was going to be a tough day going into Arrowhead. It’s a bit of a surprise because Raiders quarterback Terrelle Pryor is mobile.

He’s typically at least to this point in the season been able to escape serious pressure by his legs and his running ability to get outside the pocket. However Kansas City made a very specific point of collapsing the pocket around Pryor and he didn’t have anywhere to escape. That’s a lesson that he’s going to have to learn because teams are going to have to take that to heart in the coming weeks and follow the Chiefs example.

Pryor is going to have to face a lot more defensive fronts and face the exact same thing, the good thing is most teams don’t have a good front seven they can do what KC did and they’re going to have a lot more trouble doing it than the Chiefs. Nevertheless their going to have to worry about that. One of the things with any quarterback is growing developing and adjusting to the different things that defenses throw at you.

This is a league where if your successful people are going to keep book on you and they figure out what your weaknesses are. If they look at Pryor’s stats his weakness once he’s trapped in the pocket he can’t make a throw their going to do their best to trap him in the pocket each and every play. So he’s got to adjust and the Raiders know that and part of the problem is the blocking.

If the Raiders blocked a little bit better than giving up sacks it wouldn’t be an issue. The Raiders need to get a little bit healthy fortunately for the Raiders they have a bye week so they have a chance to rest up to heal, to get those injuries off the books and to get the players back on the field. If the Raiders do their job and watch tape and find out what went wrong and if they get their players healthy the can recover.

The Raiders can be competitive again but obviously when you get sacked ten times your not going to win, they’re playing well and they were in this game until fairly late when the Chiefs pulled away but their not going to be playing the Chiefs every week their only going to be playing them one more time. The Raiders have shown some improvement, so as long as they can keep Pryor from getting sacked that many times each week they’ll have a better chance at winning some of these games.

David Zizmor covers the NFL for Sportstalk radio